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Best Practices for Title and Description Tags \| Landing Pages
Due to being busy I have never written on this topic in detail like I am going to do here. This is about character length and keywords and how they are displayed in google organic listings. Note I said displayed. This article is not focused on keywords as much as on display.

Leadership Bottlenecks Kill Companies
Organizational failure can always be traced back to leadership decisions and non-decisions. Successful leaders rely on best practices and consistency to endure during difficult times.

Something Old and Something New - Apply Both for Sales Success
The phrase "something old and something new," which is often heard while brides are getting married, can be applied to using social media tools successfully. Many companies jump on the new idea band wagon, often discarding old ideas and methodologies that still produce results. Let's take a look at two ways you should combine new social media with good 'ole fashioned sales principles.

Apply "Best Practices" for your People Strategies

In today’s marketplace, the only constant is change. The on-going challenges of our business conditions and global imperatives require organizations to recognize their human capital as their major competitive advantage. Every company has the ability to develop and implement talent management initiatives that are aligned with their organizational culture and linked to their business goals and objectives. Retaining talent, developing strong leaders and building a pipeline for the future is vital to the success of every organization. Sound and effective management practices are at the core of determining a business’ ability to thrive and succeed. What are some best practices that enable managers to create and reinforce this type of environment?

Leadership: Best Practices for Unleashing Leadership Potential in Everyone

What makes a good leader? Are good leaders born or are they made? These are age old questions we have heard for many years and continue to ponder today. The leader of the 21st century does not necessarily resemble the leaders of the past. The characteristics, expectations, skills and competencies have changed over the decades. Leadership is a required competency of every successful manager and executive today. Business executives are recognizing that success is largely dependent on their ability to identify, develop and retain leaders within their organizations. The fact that these potential leaders can be found at all levels of an organization and within all disciplines, however, is not yet equally recognized. On-going talent assessment is a key part of building a pipeline and preparing your organization for the future.

The Overwhelming Logic of Sustainable Business

Steady consumer demand and the rapid growth of green industries makes sustainable business irresistibly appealing. For all economic enterprises from large corporations to small businesses, sustainable strategies and best practice are an important part of intelligent business planning. With numerous consumer and industry reports corroborating the ongoing growth of the green market, green is not just about adding cache, it is increasingly a matter of survival.

Top Sales Pros do These 10 Things----Why Don't You?

Every month, I run a Coach Call on two different topics. On this month’s second call, I listed the Top 10 things that the top sales pros do that most of the others do not. Since I recorded this call, I have had dozens of people respond that the call opened their eyes to the things that are necessary to stay on top. Furthermore, many of the respondents commented that the Coach call helped them get back on track to re-start doing the things that they used to do. In either event, due to the overwhelming response to this call, I have decided to write a corresponding article for those of you who are not part of the Coach Call program.

Go on Vacation to Grow Your Business
If you want to improve your business, go on vacation. Vacation is a great time to decompress, not accomplish anything meaningful, and eliminate any noise coming from an alarm clock. It's also a great time to observe customer service and sales. My vacations have always left me with a few business takeaways. Here are some observations:

Lean, Green Sales with the S.H.A.R.P. Sales TrainingTM System

Increase Profits while Reducing Wasted Time, Energy & Dollars - The Philosophy: By providing sales and customer service agents training, support and direction on a consistent basis, they will feel empowered, motivated and willing to take ownership over their own, as well as the organization’s, success. - The Result: Increased profits and revenue as a consequence of improved customer relations; shortened sales cycles; and reduced employee turnover. - Intertwined with the steps normally associated as part of the sales process, such as developing best practices for win-win solutions, the philosophy and psychology often employed by successful sales professionals will be shared in upcoming articles.

How to Use Barriers to Entry to Your Business Advantage
According to Cisco Innovators Forum guest blogger Bob Goedjen when we refer to barriers to entry for a business we are not talking about such issues as normally required start-up costs of business but rather about those things that are inherent in the industry or selected market place that impede a small business or any business from entry.

Create marketing messages for customers - not lawyers
Cisco Innovators Forum guest blogger Susan Fantle finds that endless news stories about the threat of lawsuits have made companies become very cautious. Being aware of the legal boundaries of marketing is important, but for strong, compelling messages, marketers should push their message to the limit and object when the company lawyers weaken it too much. Here’s how and why.

Seven Rules for Writing Winning Proposals
If you want to win more business you must write better proposals – regardless of the size of the sales opportunity. Shipley Associates, a business development consulting firm wins 80 to 85 percent of their proposals by using best practices in proposal writing. Improve your writing and your win rate by applying the following seven rules:

Change Management Best Practices

Organizational change provides the opportunity for organizations to build more focused, disciplined, and mature businesses. This opportunity comes with significant financial risk if changes are not planned and managed proactively. Change management is primarily concerned with how to understand, engage, respond, and communicate with PEOPLE. A solid vision, senior management sponsorship, and having the right people in the right roles, are the key success factors for implementing a successful change management campaign. Use our Change Management Readiness Assessment to measure your readiness for a major organizational change.

Cold Calling Best Practices
“Cold calling is the process of approaching prospective clients, typically via telephone, who have not agreed to such an interaction. The word “cold” is used because the person receiving the call is not expecting the call or has not specifically asked to be contacted by the sales person.”

Extranet Best Practices

An extranet is an extension of a company’s internal network that allows authorized users to access information in a secured manner. Public access can be given to employees, customers, partners, investors, or other key stakeholders. Extranets generally reside on a company’s private server rather than on a public Internet server. However, they use Internet protocols so users can navigate with a web browser. Access from the Internet can be controlled through various architectures that are username/password specific, thus limiting users to pages relevant to their needs, while keeping other areas of the extranet private and secure.

Focus Group Best Practices

A focus group is a controlled group interview of a target audience demographic. The interview is often led by a facilitator who covers a set series of questions or topics. Benefits of focus group sessions include: increased customer satisfaction & brand perceptions, and informing product development decisions. Focus groups are a key component to an effective market research program. Generating qualitative feedback in this medium can be more insightful than standardized surveys.

Email Marketing Best Practices

“E-mail marketing is a form of direct marketing that uses electronic mail as a means of communicating messages to an audience. This term usually refers to emails that are being sent over the internet and can include: • Sending e-mails with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or old customers and to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business. • Sending e-mails with the purpose of acquiring new customers or convincing old customers to buy something immediately. • Adding advertisements in e-mails sent by other companies to their customers.”

Intranet Best Practices
An Intranet, or ‘portal’, is similar to an Internet website except that it is restricted to users within an organization. (Intranets that extend outside the company to partners or customers are called Extranets). Intranets use web servers to distribute information, and users view content with their Internet browser or by downloading documents.

Joining Insightful Marketing Blogs
With the explosion of user-generated content (UGC) on the Internet, it makes business sense to monitor what is being said about your brand; but also, to gain insights from experts who help others to learn by sharing their best practices.

List Building Best Practices
Having a well qualified list of contacts is one of the most important factors in determining the success or failure of an email marketing campaign. Read the following summary to understand how you can build a rock-hard list.

Market Research Best Practices
Market research is the process of systematically gathering, recording, and analyzing data regarding customers, competitors, and market conditions, to help organizations make better business decisions about the development and marketing of new or existing products and services.

Marketing Dashboard Best Practices
Over the past 10 years there has been a distinctive shift in Marketing activities; budgets are only being allocated to investments that can produce measurable returns, such as sales support and lead generation. In a time of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, repeatable controls, processes, and policy & procedures, have been implemented to ensure accountability.

Marketing Governance Best Practices
Marketing has the unenviable reputation as the line of business that is not held accountable for achieving specific, measurable, bottom-line results. Finding a bean counter that does not view Marketing as a cost center – producing intangible results – is a daunting task.

Sales Growth Teams Drive Revenue

Achieving ever-increasing revenue targets requires that new recruits and average performers are equipped with the right tools, resources, training, and knowledge. Establishing a Sales Growth Team can help you transfer sales & marketing Best Practices from your top performers to those who need them most. Use Demand Metric’s downloadable Sales Growth Team Charter template to set a mandate for this new team.

Trade Promotion Best Practices
Trade promotion is any expenditure paid directly by a manufacturer to the trade or retail factors in a given industry as a set amount on a per unit basis or in payment for a merchandising value provided by the retailer.

Website Redesign Best Practices
Over 70% of mid-sized organizations are currently involved in a website redesign initiative, or have one planned for this year. Before you go to your CFO to get some budget for this program, conduct a brief website effectiveness audit to build the need.

Best Practices for Sustainability and Communicating Sustainability

A sustainable best practices program involves a comprehensive and holistic approach that encompasses everything a business does that impacts the environment. A successful sustainability initiative demands the willing participation of employees. Businesses also need to understand how to communicate sustainability in a way that conveys their environmental initiatives while enhancing their internal and external brand.

100 Ways to Succeed #84
If The Envelope Doesn't Fit, Forget It! (So Check on the Envelopes.)

Use Examples to Encourage
It's well established that good leaders praise their employees, but there are different ways to go about it. As a manager, one thing you can do is to point out to the whole team how well an employee does a certain task. Then others can follow that best practices example.

Defining Value from the Customers Perspective

Some 'best practices' are too important to assume they are understood...and 'practiced.' This article talks about one of my personal favorites. It involves two radio stations and a buggy whip manufacturer. Oh yes, and a website developer that struggled for 6 years before she got the memo on this best practice. The concept is simple, execution tough. Every business must understand why their customer's buy from them, something few bother to do. And consultants are the worst. Stop talking about 'What You Sell/Do' and start explaining 'What's In It For ME (the customer!).

7 Best Practices for Facebook Pages for Franchise or Small Business Owners

Whether you're a small business owner or you've bought in to a franchise, setting up a Facebook Page for your business can seem easy yet daunting. Many business owners just don't know how best to get started, how to navigate their Page, how to set up a vanity URL and how to market it. In this article, Sally Witzky offers 7 best practices for your Facebook Page to help the small business owner avoid some pitfalls that others have made as well as to ensure awareness of Facebook insights and analytics, which are available to the Page Administrator. With these tips, the small business owner is sure to get on the right road in getting started in creating and promoting their Facebook Page.

Thought leadership interview with Marketing guru Dana VanDen Heuvel
In this thought leadership interview I speak to marketing consultant, author and speaker, Dana VanDen Heuvel. Besides writing regularly on thought leadership topics, Dana is a widely recognized expert on blogging, podcasting, RSS, Internet communities and interactive marketing trends and best practices. He speaks regularly on these topics at industry events around the world.

Choosing Employee Assessments - Hand Scoring by Experts Still Safeguards Validity & ROI!

Employee assessments are everywhere. With a wealth of employee assessments emerging, the right assessment can seem as elusive as the proverbial "needle in a haystack," yet absolutely worth the diligent hunt. Best practices deployment in this specific arena increases human capital ROI by tenfold plus. The bottom line results of assessments gone right is not contested, and we stand firm that every candidate hired, trained or promoted without this proper intelligence is a profit opportunity missed. And coming from staunch advocates of progressive technology... computers are no replacement for hand scoring. A five criteria process, the following roadmap guarantees ROI and avoids common pitfalls.

Twitter Etiquette – 8 Best Practices to Improve Business Relations

Marketing is now evolving from a practice of sending out press releases and purchasing ad space in magazines, to immediately grabbing the attention of media moguls and company executives through social networking. The ability to reach out to the very people who seemed untouchable only a few years ago is now more than possible. The barriers between the ‘unknown’ and the ‘famous’ are breaking down full force.

Tale of Two Clients - Sales Training! :) versus Saaaales Training (:

Here's an interesting comparison for you. Two client companies are on the exact same sales development time line. (Same time line but separate from each other - they don't even know about each other) Both of their sales forces went through sales force evaluations at the exact same time. Both of their sales management teams were developed at the same time. Both of their sales organizations received sales infrastructure help (sales process, sales pipeline, metrics, sales recruiting process, etc).

Tale of Two Clients - Sales Training :) vs. SAAAALES TRAINING :(
You've heard it before. It flows down hill. Your organization can only be as effective as the weakest leadership link. When it comes to a sales development initiative, you must start out committed and remain committed to drive the process until the change you demand has been accomplished. Anything short of that is a formula for failure.

Bench Strength - The Key to Replacing Salespeople
When you send your replacements into the field, are your fingers crossed hoping they don't make mental errors that help competitors close business or are you confident because your replacements are better than those you replaced? Those are the two keys right there:

Why You Should be Scared When Your Salespeople are Closing Lots of Business
Sales managers get caught up in the excitement of a closing frenzy when they should be taking a step back and asking themselves, what's wrong with this picture?

What Makes You Think You Have a Sales or Recruiting Process?
Whether it's a recruiting process or a sales process, it should always include a combination of best practices, milestones, steps and stages conducted in the proper sequence, with the proper expectations, in an appropriate time frame.

••••••>SEO Tip of the Day: SEO for the Lifetime of Your Website
Search Engine Optimization must be done for the lifetime of the website if you wish to maintain top search engine rankings

8 Best Practices for Online Learning
Many organizations are using online learning instead of classroom based training because they believe it is more cost effective, convenient, and less time consuming. For those of us that have sat through poorly designed online learning programs, however, it can be experienced as a form of torture.

Addressing Difficult situations at Work
Difficult situations at Work

Practical Solutions to Help Business Owners Solve Their 5 Biggest Challenges Part 1

Leverage Your Time - Leveraging time seems to be the top challenge with most business owners. We have identified resources that will make it easy for you to put in place some simple systems that will help you free up time, reduce your stress level and get your business working harder for you. Business owners work 50 percent more than employees of large companies. The average business owner holds five "jobs" within his or her own company and many entrepreneurs must invest their time as "sweat equity" because they are funding their own business. Successful owners have created leverage and found more time to do the things that were most important to them by:

7 Best Practices for Developing E-Learning Content
Despite the current tough economy, forward looking organizations continue to invest in developing their human capital. In the past, employees were trained in the skills needed for a specific job, however in this rapidly changing business environment, cross-training can help employees to be more versatile.

The Do's and Dont's of Influencing Others
Different forms of influencing Others.

5 Ways to Grow Your Sales Team
I have wondered for years if there are constants in sales management. Are there principles that would help me help others in the area of management? I realized, first and foremost, that there are two basic types of leaders: bottom line managers and people managers.

The Importance of Job Descriptions

The EEOC recently published its Best Practices to assist employers in avoiding violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act as it relates to employees with caregiving responsibilities (read more about avoiding caregiver discrimination claims at instanthrsolutions.com). One of the recommendations is that employers develop "specific, job-related qualification standards" to ensure that hiring decisions are based on an applicant's qualifications, rather than on his or her personal caregiving responsibilities. The same holds true for any other protected category under federal equal employment opportunity laws, including race, color, national origin, religion, gender, disability, or age.

Three Business-Building Ideas To "Steal"

One of the great joys of our work is meeting a wide range of successful local business owners. Each has a wonderful story to tell about how they created and developed their firm, and each has special challenges. Each owner has a set of talents that make his or her business unique, and some valuable lessons for all of us on what has worked for them. On the principal that it’s easier to follow someone else’s best practices than spend time and effort making up our own, here are some lessons we can all apply from business people right in our own neighbourhood.

Don't Be Afraid of Accounts Receivable
Many small and midsize businesses (SMB) we consult with are afraid of implementing policies and procedures to better manage their accounts receivable (A/R) because they are scared of losing customers. Is this fear preventing you from achieving AR best practices?

Optimize Your Web Site For Bing
Want to know how to optimize your website for the latest search engine to hit the web? Bing is taking the Internet by storm and if you have a website you should consider these important ranking influences.

Sharing best practices company-wide
Can the IT department really benefit from ideas given from Sales? Can Marketing really get great results if they listen to tips from the mailroom? This article shares what some succesful firms have done concerning the interdepartmental sharing of ideas. An exercise is included for discussion in staff meetings.

The Top 5 SEO Strategies For Dominating Search Engine Results
Don't waste your time endlessly searching for the magic search engine optimization bullet. There are a variety of techniques you can use to quickly and easily improve your rankings. Learn how to effectively manage your SEO campaigns and generate optimal results. Here are the top 5 methods of all time.

Pep Talk for Entrepreneurs and Innovation Leaders
Experiment, Learn, Grow, and Create We are living in the midst of a seismic shift that calls for us to redefine the way we live and work. This is the time to mitigate fear, face facts, nurture relationships, collaborate and find new opportunities for growth.

A Change In Mindset Comes Before a Change in Ability
People regularly attempt self-improvement and helping others with little to show for their effort. Advice, training programs, diets, and how-to books routinely fail to deliver their potential. The reason for their poor results however is not what many people blame. It is usually not because of the content of the training program, the nature of the diet, or the advice of the book.

The Art of Whiteboarding a Sale

When we train enterprise sales people how to use a whiteboard to have a compelling, consistent and confident interaction with customers and prospects, we often hear, “I’m terrible at whiteboarding”, or “I have awful penmanship.” At the end of our half-day or full-day whiteboard symposiums, however, participants surprise themselves when they realize they now have the confidence to go pitch their company’s whiteboard story to C-level buyers the very next day. By following some very simple best practices, an awkward and “one-way” presentation can be turned into an engaging and fully interactive dialogue.

Franchisor Best Practices
Once your franchise program is under way, you will want to work to improve the quality of your system. Here are some best practices that you should consider.

The Key to Extraordinary Leadership

What makes an extraordinary leader? What qualities do powerful leaders have that inspire others and help them achieve a new level of excellence? Anthony Robbins: "Leaders are those individuals who live by empowering beliefs and teach others to tap into their full capabilities by shifting the beliefs that have been limiting them." The most significant obstacle to tapping into your own authentic leadership abilites is what you believe about yourself and everyone around you culminating in an on-going story about how things are and how you are.Extraordinary levels of leadership are only made possible by understanding the true power of belief.

Sales Process: Repeat Success and Avoid Failure
Good sales people are naturals. They just get on with the job, their customers love them and they keep bringing home the bacon. But what is it that they are doing right? Do you know? Can you pass on those lessons to other members in the team? If you can get the whole sales team to consistently follow best practices, your sales revenue will increase dramatically.

SEO's Relationship With Website Architecture
SEO's relationship with web design is a natural one. By making sites simple and easily accessible, you are providing the easiest path for the search engine robots to index your site, at the same time that you are creating the optimum experience for your human visitors.

Want growth? Now is the time for an Acquitision

What everyone knows is that money can be made in the stock market whether it is going up or down. The questions is, as a business owner, how do you grow when the economy is on its way South (sound familiar?). The last time the market has been so ideally primed for growth through acquisition was in the early 70's. It probably won't be this good again for another 20 or 30 years. In this article, I talk about how this works.

Best Practices: Annual CEO Expense Audit
I’ve started a new category on my blog called “Best Practices.” These are going to be posts inspired by my experiences with various companies that I feel are above and beyond the normal activities you’d expect. The first one comes from Matt Blumberg, the CEO of Return Path. Earlier this week the board received an email from him that included the following:

Formula for Sales Templating

Sales templating is a technique that can help you develop a consistent sales process regardless of the background of your individual salespeople. What is sales templating? It is the technique by which you document the steps of the ideal typical sale. Sales templating allows you to capture the best practices and nuances of each of your salespeople to create a model sales process that all of them can follow. In addition to making your job as manager easier, sales templating will improve the performance of your sales force. By creating an overt, step-wise sales template or process, you give the salesperson the means to maintain control of the sales situation.

Best Practices for Using Testimonials
How to get and use great testimonials

Tale of Two Assessments - Comparing the Value
A potential client wanted to know how Objective Management Group could justify the cost of a 25 person license (unlimited assessments for one year or 25 salespeople hired for $18,000) versus a $3500 per 100 assessment price for DISC. There are several factors here but they are all worth noting. Read More

17 "HOT" Leadership Best Practices
17 "HOT" Leadership Best Practices

Sales Best Practices - Not
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the difference between company A and B. And it doesn't take a rocket scientist to implement the process either. But it does take more than a 60 day commitment to the new process. When it's been broken for a decade it doesn't get fixed in a calendar quarter.

Is Email Hiding Your Personality?

Email is so much easier to use for prospecting than the phone. You can write it at any time day or night. You don't have to worry about being hung up on and you won't catch your client "at a bad time." But it's also easily deleted with no response. When you put yourself into your email, your chances of getting prospects to respond escalate. You stand apart from the other sellers who blend together as Inbox clutter.

Book Review: Influencer: The Power to Change Anything
At the core of all great marketing strategies is to clearly identify who your target market is and what their problem is. This book is about the strategies for solving problems.

The EEOC Task Force Splendid Approach for Businesses
The EEO task force after evaluating best practices from leading organizations established the acronym "SPLENDID" which stands for a series of actions that conscientious business owners both large and small can take to address EEO and diversity issues for best practices.

Here's a great ROI

The business owner or executive who wants to work less and earn more must gain the knowledge of the leadership style to use to develop people and teams to be autonomous. That means that people need to be able to work together and solve problems on their own. And the problems that are the hardest for people to solve on their own are communication problems and conflict. This is the biggest impediment to teamwork. Thus coaching for a leader is necessary to incorporate an organizational strategy that will transform an organization over time from a control style of management to a participative style.

The Web 2.0 Association: Reader Response (CPPC-CCMP Profile)

Response to our recent sponsor profile articles is quite active with the posting on services procurement garnering more than 20 comments. As is our normal practice, I am more than pleased to share these comments with you starting with the feedback that was received from a supply chain professional in Panama regarding the August 20th post titled “The Web 2.0 Association: A Dynamic Engagement Between Stakeholders Sharing the Same Interests and Goals.

Manage for Improvement - Part Three 'Involvement'
"Manage for Improvement" is Part Three 'Involvement' in an integrated approach to human resources management. Knowing where to manage and how to influence and measure your success are strategies to improve efficiency. Part Four 'Development'. Part Five 'Compensation'.

Small Business Interview Series Employee Benefits
Employee benefits are an important topic for many small business owners and managers. In the first installment of an ongoing series, I speak with benefits specialist Rachel von Sturmer, Principal at True Benefits Financial, about employee benefits best practices, trends and challenges.

The Power of a Sales Playbook Embedding Discipline and Best Practices in Your Sales Force

Sales people have a bad reputation in the business world. With movies like Boiler Room and Glengerry GlenRoss, Hollywood has only reinforced this. Frankly, some of this bad reputation is deserved. In many companies, the sales people may be hitting their numbers, but management knows they are only operating at a fraction of their potential. Is there a way to put discipline into the sales function? Won’t discipline kill the spirit and motivation of a good sales team? Good sales people are typically high-energy, relationship-oriented people with a low tolerance for structure. Their talents lie in handling the nuances of multiple relationships in an uncertain and dynamic environment. A Sales Playbook is the answer.

SEM Industry Standards Nonsense or Necessary
Does the search engine marketing industry need standards? Should there be an industry body to oversee these standards? Kalena Jordan of Search Engine College presents both sides of the debate.

6 Ways NOT To Green Your Business
The amazing growth of the green economy is generating immense opportunities for entrepreneurs, but the experience of others still helps to avoid pitfalls and stay on track for success.

Just Get STARTED!
One day at a time, step by step, do what you can and repeat it until you reach the top of the mountain, until that wonderful day when your friends wake up and are amazed at how "lucky" you are!

Ten Viral Marketing Best Practices
If you're plotting the next Subservient Chicken, here are 10 best practices to keep in mind.

What can we learn from the best sales people?

Do great B2B sales people, regardless of what they sell, have any practices in common? In other words, do the best sales people all sell the same way? A number of years ago, a professional association attempted to answer that question. They studied superstar sales people from a wide variety of industries and concluded: Yes! In fact, the best sales people excel at the same things. Here are the top five practices of the very best sales people.

Eight fatal marketing mistakes that coaches and consultants make
This article describes how to avoid eight serious yet common business development errors made by coaches and consultants.

A Perfect Next Career for Recent Retirees and Seasoned Businesspeople
This article discusses the reasons why business coaching and consulting are an ideal career for retired businesspeople and seasoned executives in transition.

The four fundamental strategies to increase business revenues
One of the jobs of a business coach, consultant, and advisor is to help clients quickly see a path to get results. In the case of increasing revenues, there are four primary strategies that business leaders need to master. This article describes them.

25 Ways to DESIGN Your Way to Higher Conversions
How the site is developed, along with the underlying coding structure, plays a significant role on whether your site meets the usability requirements of your audience. Below are a number of individual elements that must be considered in every website design. While each plays a minor role over the total usability of a website, together they add up to be much more than the sum of their parts.

HRD Policies to Promote Training and Spillovers

The above assessment of selected past empirical evidence suggests that firms, in spite of large productivity gains, underinvest in training due to market failures such as credit market constraints, lack of information and labour turnovers. The underinvestment is even more acute among small- and medium-sized domestic firms that tend to have higher productivity gains from training compared to MNEs or large domestic firms. It has also shown that MNEs have numerous channels to improve HRD in host developing countries by training their own workers and facilitating training spillovers. This calls for policy measures to tackle market failures in training and to stimulate training spillovers, especially among domestic small- and medium-sized firms.

IV Module I Key Principles for an African Model of Microfinance

African microfinance is as diverse as the continent itself. An array of approaches have been used, ranging from traditional kinship networks and Revolving Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs) to NGOs and development projects, and funded by both the informal and formal financial sectors, as well as domestic and international and donors. Consequently, examples of African microfinance offer an array of lessons of what works and doesn't work.

II. How Can MicroFinance Succeed In Africa?

African microfinance is as diverse as the continent itself. An array of approaches have been used, ranging from traditional group-based systems, to specialised lending by banks and funded by international nongovernmental organisations (NGO) financial intermediaries. Consequently, examples of African microfinance offer an array of lessons of what works and doesn’t work. Drawing from these lessons, and those from non-African examples, OSCAL developed a Microfinance model based on four principles:

Flexible Work Arrangements: Why Should You Offer Them?
As a business owner you are interested in helping your employees succeed. But, behind many decisions, whether we admit it or not is always, "what's in it for me?" Read here to see what just SOME of the advantages are to providing flexible work arrangements as a benefit to your employees and candidates.

Chart of Accounts Best Practices
Often the simplest and most basic things within an organization are overlooked. It is time to get back to basics! The most basic of outputs from an accounting department is the chart of accounts, and this article looks at best practices to improve operating efficiencies.

Secrets of Successful Business Partnering
Partnering for business is not unlike partnering for a lasting marriage. Do the partners have to be similar in characteristics? Do they have to know each other for a long a time? Do they need a complicated “prenuptial” agreement? I venture to propose, not at all. The secrets to a lasting business partnership are actually quite simple. Below is a proven recipe.

Best Practices...Oh Really?
Best Practices constitute little more than management speak and have caused more problems in business than they have solved. This article discusses the downside of utilizing so called "Best Practices."

Best Practices...Oh Really?
Best Practices constitute little more than management speak and have caused more problems in business than they have solved. This article discusses the downside of utilizing so called "Best Practices."

Best Practices
The best practices regarding promotional products are similar to advertising and marketing best practices generally

Don't Struggle for Years, Buy a Professional Practice and Jumpstart Your Growth
Professionals Can Profitably expand their practices by buying competitors practices. This article provides tips on how to do that successfully.

6 Quick Tips For Your Business Presentations
Practices that help people design presentations and the practices that help them deliver successfully do not overlap much. A systematic approach helps busy executives discover how to win results faster.

Seven Practices of Successful Teams in Sport and Business
There are a small number of key practices that we use when we play a team sport. However, those practices are often forgotten when we try to get the best from our employees. Successful business owners and managers apply these important practices day in and day out. Find out what these key practices are and start applying them today in your business.

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